Throughout his life, Michael Martin continually brought his writing and art into dialogue with other artists and thinkers. In the poems themselves, he frequently quotes from and responds to writers like Paul Celan, Hannah Arendt, René Char, and the authors of the Upanishads. He and the “outsider” ceramic artist Georgia Blizzard, his neighbor and friend, were great influences on each other’s work. And he loved collaborating with musicians, like the cellist Jodi Beder, in spoken word performances. Here are some examples of artists and writers in conversation with Martin’s work.
Fred Chappell
“Approaching History and the Ambitions of the Modernist Epic,” Iron Mountain Review 4, no. 1 (1987): 29-32.
A native of the North Carolina mountains, Fred Chappell (1936-2024) was the state’s poet laureate from 1997 to 2002. In addition to 18 collections of poetry, he also published many novels and stories. He taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for four decades, mentoring many of the state’s finest writers. In 1987, he wrote the concluding essay for the Michael Martin issue of The Iron Mountain Review, reproduced here with the generous permission of the journal’s editor.
The issue also includes an insightful forward (or “pro tempore”) by then-editor Dan Leidig, which offers a helpful introduction to Martin’s work generally.
Alex Martin
Appalachian Fall: The Song-Poems of Michael Martin
The poet’s son, Alex Martin, is a composer and guitarist living in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. His first three CDs, Nostalgia for Terra Incognita (2007), Second Life (2011), and Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys (2021), reflect his training as a jazz musician and exploration of world music traditions. His fourth album, Appalachian Fall, to be released in June 2024, consists of 10 settings of his father’s poetry, composed while caring for him during the last two years of the poet’s life. Read the song lyrics here. More background on the album and the tracks here.